Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Inquiry

Recently in English we’ve been studying the Japan earthquake and tsunami. At first, I thought that’s normal to have earthquake in Japan. However, when I keep reading the news about the Sendai earthquake, I know that’s a serious natural disaster. When I was watching the Japan tsunami in Japan, I was shocked. The water, which looked black and didn’t look like water, flooded the whole land in a few seconds. People, houses and cars were swept by the flood. I couldn’t believe what I was watching on TV! Everything seemed like it was happening in a movie.

People think that the earthquake and tsunami in Japan was miserable. They donated money to charity to help Japanese rebuild their houses and community. I kept watching some TV shows and news about the Japan earthquake and tsunami aftermath.

I remember there was a TV show talking about a lady in Hong Kong. She majored in psychology in a university and now she is working as a social worker in her community. By the first time she heard of the Japan earthquake and tsunami, she felt sad like most people did. However, later she realized donating money to charity was not enough to help the people in Japan. She decided to go to the disaster area and council the people to get back their hopes.

Everyone thought donating money was enough to help the Japanese. It was not necessary for her to go to the disaster area to help them like that. However, she explained:

“The Japanese got hurt the most physiologically, but not physically. Even they have their houses rebuild. They will not be as happy as they did before the earthquake. They may lose hope in life.”

I admired her spirit on helping people. Although there was nuclear radiation explosion, she would not stop herself from helping people because of that. I see the love between humans which I found the most precious after the natural disaster.

Something that I know for sure about the Japan earthquake and tsunami are that every nation is concerned more on the use of nuclear power. However, the Japanese are still struggling, and the biggest concerns for them now are food and water. Because most of the food and water are polluted by radiation.

Supermarket shelves in Tokyo and northern Japan had already been depleted because of supply disruptions and hording. Now the government has halted distribution of leafy vegetables from four prefectures near Fukushima and warned families in the Tokyo area not to give young children drinking water.

One thing I found ridiculous is that in normal times, Japanese pay close attention to what they consume. Over years, Japanese has restricted imports from US and some other countries for quality concerns. Now, the radiation concerns have prompted the US and other countries to restrict some Japanese food imports.

"boxes containing bottles of water onto a truck to distribute to households with infants at a warehouse in Tokyo. Anxiety over Japan’s food and water supplies soared following warnings about radiation leaking from Japan’s tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant into Tokyo’s tap water at levels unsafe for babies over the long term."

It explains how the radiation explosion in Japan worsens the global warming problem. One of the reasons is the impact of radiation explosions due to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

"Japan will compensate for the shutdown of its 10 nuclear reactors by relying more heavily on traditional fossil fuels."

Also, the natural disaster in Japan makes people around the world afraid of using nuclear power.

"In Germany, the government announced ... the temporary closure of its two oldest nuclear power stations and suspended plans to extend the life of all the country’s remaining plants as jitters over nuclear power spread across the world. Switzerland and Austria also put on hold to build and replace nuclear plants and called for atomic stress tests to make sure Europe’s nuclear facilities are 'earthquake-proof'. Emergency meeting was held in Europe due to the awareness of radiate explosion in Japan. All these resulted in more countries will be forced to use fossil fuels rather than nuclear power and worsen the global warming problem."

Another source that I looked at was: "Justin Bieber - Pray" Music Video (Japan Earthquake 2011)". I like the rhythm of the song because it gives people a peaceful feeling. I think this is a good song to listen not only for the Japanese but also people around the world. I nod my head when I listen to the lyrics:

"Children are crying, soldiers are dying, some people don’t have a home. But I know there’s sunshine behind that rain. I know there’s good times behind that pain."

I think these two lines can cheer the Japanese up and make them not to lose hope in life.

i also like the line:

“I close my eyes and I can see a better day. I close my eyes and pray.”

Even though I don’t have a religion, these two lines and that part of the song gave me a really peaceful feeling. It seems like just pray and everything will be fine.

The Japanese people are remarkably resilient and long-suffering. Also, the Japan that emerges from this disaster will be a very different place than it was before March 11. As long as the Japanese are worried and hopeless, remember there are always people supporting them all over the world. Just pray and everything will be all right. There’s sunshine behind that rain and always good times behind that pain.

Comments

You have included a lot of information with a lot of facts. What i like th most about your work is that you included some of your opinions also. The facts that you included in your work are very interesting.

You had LOTS of facts about the earthquake and tsunami that had just occured in Japan, and I think you did a really great job describing all the facts. I also think it is helpful how you talked about some ways people try to help Japan because it is helpful to me since in tech class we are trying to think about something we can do as a class to help Japan and I can share with my class some of the things we can do from what you said. I also think its good that you shared your opinions about the events that had occured and are occuring in Japan, yous seem really upset about what happened in Japan. You did a really good job with your post and I learned many things! :)